US Military Adding Tomahawks To Individual Soldier’s Equipment.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/WorldNewsTonight/tomahawk_030818.html
No suprise that an old design is being officialy added; hatchets have been used informally by US troops for more than two centuries. But isn’t this against the Geneva Converntions?
Huh 
Have I been whooshed?
Me too. Bosda, what do you mean by that? It’s part of a tool kit. It’s just as dangerous as a sledgehammer and I those certainly are legal.
Kickass. I remember from the days when the 101st used to parachute into France decorated as American Indians with mohawks, warpaint, and tomahawks.* Sometime they need to get back to that.
[size=1]Well, not really, but I remember watching the movie.size.
Kickass. I remember from the days when the 101st used to parachute into France decorated as American Indians with mohawks, warpaint, and tomahawks.* Sometime they need to get back to that.
Well, not really, but I remember watching the movie…
No big deal there.
I used to carry at least 2 kabars wrapped in 550cord, my e-tool and a tomahawk. It’s good for digging by breaking up the hard earth the e-tool has trouble with.Wrap some 100mph tape around the handles as well or more 550cord.
Nice forum here.
Glad I’m not in the Regular Army any more. Picture this scene: go to the NCO club with friends, have some egotistical grunt find an issue with you (imaginary or not), he and his friends and you and your friends all meet up at the local softball field at midnight to have it out, this time with tomahawks in hand. Yeesh.
And welcome, Sh0t. Boy, you just about need a glossary to follow that post. Some of the non-military folk here might appreciate a short definition next to some of those terms, like e-tool (excavating tool a.k.a. collapsible shovel) on the first use. But nice input otherwise. Were you issued the tomahawk or did you buy it at a surplus store?
Entrenching tool.
The NCO club scenario above couldn’t be any worse than people coming in with knives or bayonets. /shrug
No I was issued the bayonet, pistoleers are issued kabars but the m9 bayonet is crap. So I bought a couple kabars and one of the mountaineering utility style tomahawks, blade on one end, spike on the other. I’ve had about 15 kabars or so, lost about 11 of them. I’m a firm believer in low cost sturdy knives over all the high speed low drag fin stablized with a 12:1 right hand twist knives you always hear about. A $600 knife is great until it breaks(it will) or you lose it(even more likely)
I wasn’t Army either, Marine Corps 0311 from 97 to 2001, with Golf/2nd and Charlie/1st
Of the one American Tomahawk makes, the brent is the best I think for grunt use. All metal, no handle so you can wrap judicious amounts of 550 cord around it as your “hilt” and use it as an emergency grapple.
What did you do in the World’s Finest Army?
Tomahawks are a good idea, I’m suprised it took so long for them to become standard equipment.
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Sh0t, where did you get kabars from? I have yet to find anyplace that sells good quality beater ones. Usually they just have insanely overpriced decorative junk.
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Onbase or the numerous military catering shops nearby.
Just find regukar KaBars I don’t pay more than 60 bucks or so.
Tomahawks and tools of that nature are all over. It just depends on whether or not your unit has sought to get them.
http://www.kabar.com/cgi-bin/product_detail.cgi?product_id=230&cat=2
This is one one I always get. Standard 7inch blade, no frills necessary
They have it for 80 and change but in the shops it’s always a bit cheaper.
Here are two versions of the Rogers Rangers’ standing orders
http://www.psywarrior.com/ranger.html (I don’t think this one is authentic. Maybe it was written for that Spencer Tracy movie)
http://users.erols.com/candidus/orders.htm (purported to be Rogers’ authentic instructions)
Nostalgically inclined as people might be to see tomahawks come back into use (as well as green-dyed fringed buckskin jumpers become the US Army’s dress uniform), how effective a weapon is a hatchet? With a knife you can thrust upward from a protected crouch, but with a hatchet wouldn’t you expose your torso as you swing down?
And anyway, what good are they in Iraq? Even the Ghurkas there aren’t issued their kukris.
Slithy: I’m not certain you are right here, as far as I know the Ghurkas always carry their Kukris with them…something to do with tradition I guess.
Well don’t forget the 23rd Infanry Division, The Tomahawks, they carry them ornamentally as well. I don’t think it’s coming into service for any nostalgic reason.
As far as using it as a weapon, no clue I wouldn’t try it. It’s just a tool to me. I would rather use a knife as a contact weapon. But as a tool, they are great. If it’s strong you can pry doors and windows with them, chop stuff obviously, but mostly the spike end(I wouldn’t get one without) is useful for breaking apart hard parts of earth so you can shovel it away with your e-tool to make a fighting hole.
Or just chopping things.
I’m just getting the image of soldiers pulling out their knives and reviving the practice of taking scalps. I guess they could tie them to the green-dyed buckskin fringe. 
quote]Boy, you just about need a glossary to follow that post. Some of the non-military folk here might appreciate a short definition next to some of those terms
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I’ve never been in the military, but I followed it. I loves me some 550 cord! Useful stuff.
Just curious, sh0t: Do you replace the leather handle on the Ka-Bar with 550 cord (I’ve seen some Randall knives like that), or just increase the diameter of the handle by wrapping the leather with the cord?